Goodluck Jonathan's Most Important Message for the Nigerian Youths [PART 2]:

“To suppress your heart and to un-want something you once desired is one of the most difficult tasks…”

The Nigerian youth has always enjoyed immense support from the global media whenever the reasons behind our country’s lack of progress are being discussed. The world believes that Nigeria’s problem is with her politicians so they are quick to mention corruption, lack of political will and stuffs like that are the reason behind this great country’s ‘retarded’ or rather regressive growth. And they are right!

Nigeria has had some pretty ugly leadership since her independence. Actually even before her independence, Nigeria was only a ‘golden’ mining ground for the colonial masters and after their exit, the nobles they left behind continued in the act of exploiting the country and its resources for their personal enrichment. The tragedy of this is that our leaders have not found more intelligent ways to commit these hideous crimes. I remember listening to a song recorded by the now noble laureate winner Wole Soyinka in his youth. The song titled ‘Etiquette Revolution’ was recorded before my parents got married. However, the message it contained was so relevant to the Nigerian condition at a time that it sounded like it was recorded the day before.

I guess what I am trying to say is this, Nigeria has always suffered corruption, misappropriation of resources and deliberate siphoning of her wealth by the ruling class and the situation hasn’t changed a bit.

“But why?” one may wonder.

That is because the problem is not only with the Nigerian leadership but also with the Nigerian people. In as much as the leaders are corrupt, Nigerians do not demand anything other than handouts and small gifts from their leaders. Hence, we all share in the blame for stagnating our country. The western world we look up to as models for democracy do as well have leaders that would want to siphon resources and misappropriate funds but the people demand that government constructs institutions that will benefit them instead of giving them ‘tiny-fat’ checks.

Let’s do a test: what was going through your mind the last time you had an opportunity to meet with a senior public officer casually? Did you think he should pay for the whole drinks of that sitting? If you are female, didn’t you think you can ‘runs’ him to giving you expensive gifts? Well, there goes the Nigerian problem!

The Nigerian problem is such that everybody wants to live in a good house, ride a nice car, eat at the best places, and hang with the most beautiful partners. And when they get these, they want a even better house, a nicer car and a younger wife or girlfriend as such the greed-cycle continues turning many a citizen who have the power to appoint and dis-appoint leaders to ordinary beggars- waiting around for the crumbs that falls from the politicians’ table.

This greed cycle is responsible for all the crazy stories you read in the papers and over the internet and you experience in your neighborhood. And when Nigerians get a chance to live abroad, a large percentage of them still get caught up in activities like drug dealing and that gangster lifestyle.

This greed-cycle also shows up in our leaders. They are ‘true Nigerians’, remember? This is why people would go to any length to be given the opportunity to hold down public offices and ‘serve’ ad-infinitum.

This greed cycle came up in Babangida’s ‘step aside’ instead of a ‘step down’ saga. It also showed up in Abacha’s desire to remain in power after years of absolute rule. It then showed up in Obasanjo’s wanting a third term and of recent, it showed up in president Goodluck Jonathan wanting to serve as president for Ten(10) years instead of eight(8).

So the question is; why do we want to continue feeding this desire for more and more power, money, and prestige when it is at the heart of our national problems? Why do we think it is possible to get the crown in life without carrying our cross? How do we think it is possible to get Suits without Sweats?